Crazy quilts are unique and innovative quilts created from scraps of materials. This expresses my hope for young people.

Upcoming YALSA events

Posted on 12 February 2008 Tuesday

I’m posting a few upcoming seminars and conferences of interest. While they may not specifically target students of color, or students’ interests will not be recognized by the large organizations if we don’t attend at make them known!

1. ALAN Executive Secretary Gary Salvner invites you to attend “Young Adults and Their Literature: An Inquiry-Based Forum” in conjunction with the 30th Youngstown State University English Festival in Ohio on April 17-19, 2008. Featured speakers include Joan Bauer, Chris Crutcher, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Christopher Paul Curtis, as well as Scott Dikkers, editor and co-founder of The Onion. For further information, go to http://www.ysuenglishfestival.org or contact Gary Salvner at gsalvner@ysu.edu.

2. In the spirit of “ReImagining Normal,” Illinois State University is hosting the 2008 Children’s Literature Association Conference on June 12-15, 2008 at the Chateau Hotel and Conference Center in Bloomington, Illinois. For more information about the conference, visit http://www.english.ilstu.edu/ChLA2008/. The 2008 Children’s Literature Association Phoenix Award will be presented at the conference to Peter Dickinson for Eva (Delacorte, 1988). Quoting from the Phoenix Award brochure, “The Phoenix Award is given to the author, or the estate of the author, of a book for children published originally in English that did not win a major award at the time of its publication twenty years earlier. The award is intended to recognize books of high literarymerit. Like the fabled bird that rose from its ashes with renewed life and beauty,Phoenix Award books once again touch the imaginations and enrich the lives of those who read them.” The Honor Book for 2008 is The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen (Viking, 1988). More information about the Children’s Literature Association and/or the Phoenix Award may be found at http://www.childlitassn.org.

3. The first YALSA Literature Symposium is being planned for November . There will be much more information to come through the YALSA website (www.ala.org) and through a soon-to-come Symposium wiki, so please stay tuned for more!

The Symposium will be in Nashville, TN on November 7-9, 2008 and is being made possible in large part through the Bill Morris Endowment. Registration should begin around May 1st and there will be two scholarship opportunities, one for a working librarian, and one for a library school student whose coursework is focusing on teen services. Information and details about registration and the scholarship applications will be coming within the next couple of months.

We have a slate that includes 15 total programs, with one program slot covering an impressive array of deeply inquisitive paper topics. As if this was not enough for one weekend in November, the Symposium will kick off with a special Pre-Conference on Graphic Novels and Manga (Manga as an extension of young adult literature). There will also be special breakfasts and lunches and other really fun events!